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(NEW YORK) — Fred Trump III, the nephew of former President Donald Trump, said his uncle is “atomic crazy,” that he witnessed him using racial slurs decades ago — and that he plans to vote for Kamala Harris.

The Trump way was to be “complex and sometimes cruel,” Fred Trump said in an interview with ABC News’ Aaron Katersky.

“And within every family — people know this — families are complicated. Every family has their crazy uncle. My Uncle Donald is atomic crazy. And … he has put his mark on the family history,” he said, as he promoted his new book, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way.

Pressed to explain further, Fred Trump said it “means he does things that, even as much as I know him when he’s out there now, I sort of shudder and say, ‘Is this the same guy I knew? What’s making him change? … What got him this way?’ But that all being said, I’ve always had a good relationship.”

He added, “But he’s done really horrific things to me, which some people will say, ‘How could you still want to have a relationship with him?’ He’s my uncle. He’s family, and that means a lot.”

Fred Trump, the son of the former president’s late older brother Fred Trump II, who died in 1981 at 43, says he wrote the book in part to advocate for people with severe developmental disabilities, like his adult son William. He says this latest Trump family tell-all is not a political hit job, but rather the “full-on truth” about his uncle, who is the Republican nominee for president.

In a statement to ABC News, Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung denied the claims about the former president.

“This is completely fabricated and total fake news of the highest order,” he said. “It is appalling a lie so blatantly disgusting can be printed in media. Anyone who knows President Trump knows he would never use such language, and false stories like this have been thoroughly debunked.”

The younger Trump’s new book includes a chapter titled, “The Race Card.” In that chapter, he details his uncle using a racial slur, he said.

“I was about 10 years old, and I was at my grandparents’ house, like I was a lot,” Fred Trump said. “And Donald — I could hear him screaming. And I went down to the driveway of my grandparents’ house, and there was his white El Dorado convertible with two slashes. Still remember it. And he had electrical tape, because the roof was black. And he used the word — the N-word — twice just saying who he thought probably had done this.”

The former president has consistently denied using the racial slur. Fred Trump said that despite being young when the incident occurred, he “absolutely” remembered the moment as it happened.

“OK. He did twice that day,” Fred Trump said when ABC News brought up Donald Trump’s repeated denials.

Fred Trump wrote in his book that some people have labeled the former president as racist, and some say he is not. But what does he believe?

“He, at time[s], espouses things that people who I believe are racist espouses. That’s the best I can answer that question,” he said.

“I don’t believe he’s a racist,” Fred Trump added when pressed on the question. “I just think that he uses people, whether they’re Black or they’re — whoever can help him he will use them. And, you know, call it racist or not, I don’t believe in that. He uses them as props. And when he gets what he needs out of them — votes — he’ll cast them aside.”

After his uncle was elected president in 2016, Fred Trump saw an opportunity to advocate for the disabled, he said.

“I was in the Oval Office 12 times about. And that was our mission: to advocate for people with complex disabilities,” he said.

He added, “It culminated in May of 2020 in the Oval Office. Donald was there, and he was very gracious. Several other folks were there, including the group that we brought down. We dispersed. I was asked to go back and see Donald. He greeted me with his familiar, ‘Hey, pal. How’s it going?'”

He says he “sat down for a bit” with his uncle.

“And he just came out with, ‘These people, all the expenses. They should just die,'” Fred Trump recalled. “He’s talking about human beings who have complex issues, and the first thing he could say was they should just die.”

Fred Trump said the comment wasn’t an isolated incident. He described a phone call to alert his uncle that the medical fund set up by the family for his son William was running low, a fund he says his uncle consistently replenished.

“A couple of years ago … I called him. I said, ‘Donald, the fund’s running out.’ And without hesitation, he said, ‘Your son doesn’t recognize you. Let him die and move to Florida,'” Fred Trump said.

Asked if he was surprised by the comment, Fred Trump said he was. He said he told his uncle that his son did recognize him.

“Was I surprised? I don’t think you could hear something like that and not be surprised,” Fred Trump said. “But that is what he has become. It’s sad.”

“You describe your uncle as incredibly cruel. Why would you want a relationship with him?” ABC News asked.

“I’m not gonna change him I don’t think there’s anybody that could change him,” Fred Trump said. “But I’ve always enjoyed time with him. And I would hope if he’s not elected that he’ll calm down. I don’t know if that’s possible. But my guess is I may not be welcome to any of the golf courses anymore. I’ll find others. But I do thank him for the entree to those courses. I’m a heck of a golfer.”

Fred Trump said he planned to vote for Harris, but would attend the inauguration if his uncle wins and if he’s invited.

Tune into “Good Morning America” Tuesday at 7 a.m. ET to watch more of Aaron Katersky’s interview with Fred Trump III.

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(GREENSBORO, N.C.) — A 19-year-old woman has been found dead on a picnic table under a pavilion at a park in North Carolina, police say.

The woman was found on Sunday at approximately 7:27 p.m. when officers from the Greensboro Police Department responded to the 2900 block of Haig Street after a caller expressed concern about “a person lying on a picnic table under a pavilion in the park at that location,” according to a statement from the Greensboro Police Department detailing the incident.

“The caller advised that the person was not moving. The caller said they had heard what they thought were fireworks about an hour earlier,” the statement said. “On closer inspection, the caller reported that the person was not breathing and had injuries that the caller described as gunshot wounds.”

Responding officers immediately went to the scene where they located the victim — later identified as 19-year-old Jakala Marie Goode — and pronounced her deceased at the scene.

Police are investigating Goode’s death as a homicide but did not disclose any potential motives or suspects in the case.

This is the 22nd homicide in Greensboro this year and police are asking for anybody with information to call Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000.

All tips to Crime Stoppers are completely anonymous and the investigation is currently ongoing.

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(NEW YORK) — Police in Fort Lee, New Jersey, fatally shot a woman who was experiencing a mental health crisis on Sunday, the state attorney general’s office said.

The woman has not been publicly identified. The incident is now under investigation.

Fort Lee Police Department officers responded to a home at about 1:25 a.m. Sunday after a man called 911, saying his sister was having a mental health crisis and needed to go to the hospital, according to the attorney general’s office. The man said she was holding a knife, the attorney general’s office said.

In the hallway outside the apartment, the man who called 911 spoke to a responding police officer, at which point the officer opened the door to the unit and saw two women inside, according to the attorney general’s office.

The two women, one of whom was believed to be the 911 caller’s sister, “told the officer not to come in and shut the door,” the attorney general’s office said.

The officer knocked on the door, asking the women to open it, but they allegedly did not comply, the office said. More officers then arrived and breached the door.

The sister then “approached the officers in the hallway,” at which point one officer “fired a single shot, striking the female in the chest,” the attorney general’s office said.

It is unclear if the woman was holding a knife at the time she approached the officers, the attorney general’s office said.

Officers then began rendering medical aid to the woman, who was then transported to the hospital, officials said.

She was pronounced dead at the hospital at 1:58 a.m.

The attorney general’s office said a knife was recovered at the scene.

All deaths that take place during law enforcement encounters are required to be investigated by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

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(LOS ANGELES) — One of the largest wildfires in California history, the Park Fire in Northern California, continued to rage Monday morning, racing across four counties and threatening more than 4,200 structures as thousands of firefighters struggled to increase containment lines, officials said.

The blaze, which authorities said was deliberately ignited Wednesday afternoon, had spread to 368,256 acres by Monday morning, or more than 560 square miles, through Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). Containment on the fire remains at 12%, officials said.

The Park Fire is the largest fire burning in the state and the nation right now, surpassing the 288,690-acre Durkee Fire in eastern Oregon, which was sparked on July 17 by a lightning strike and was 49% contained as of Sunday evening, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office.

The Park Fire is now the seventh largest fire recorded in California history, officials said. It comes as the state battles 22 other fires, including some as small as 12 acres as of Monday.

More than 100 structures have been confirmed destroyed, and at least five others damaged, according to CAL FIRE. There have been no reports of deaths or people unaccounted for, officials said.

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office lifted some evacuation orders on Sunday. But evacuees like Nalley Orozco told ABC News they had nothing to return to but charred rubble.

Orozco, of the Butte County town Cohasset, was one of more than 3,800 people forced to evacuate as the Park Fire consumed her home and reptile-breeding business Killer Clutches.

“We left everything behind, all personal belongings, all of the enclosures, all the supplies,” Orozco told ABC News, adding that she was able to save all of her animals but lost her home and business.

The rapid spread of the fire is being fueled by an abundance of vegetation and one of the hottest and driest summers on record in the area, officials said.

Temperatures in the area, which have been in the triple digits, cooled slightly to a high of 92 degrees on Sunday in the Chico area, according to the National Weather Service. Winds also died down in the area, but gusts of up to 20 mph are expected on Monday.

In an updated statement Sunday evening, CAL FIRE said that the cooler night and morning temperatures of about 70 degrees moderated the fire behavior, “allowing fire crews the opportunity to actively combat the fire outside of the National Forest lands.”

“This proactive approach aims to safeguard the communities and ecological and cultural resources that may be at risk from the fire,” CAL FIRE said in its statement.

The high temperature on Monday in the fire zone is forecast to be 94 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. By the end of this week, temperatures are forecast to spike back into the 100s, according to the weather service.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Butte and Tehama counties due to the Park Fire, as well as Plumas County, where the Gold Complex Fire, which started on July 22, has burned more than 3,000 acres and was 50% contained on Monday.

Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, was arrested on suspicion of arson in the Park Fire after he allegedly pushed a burning car into a gully in Bidwell Park, near Chico, according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. Stout, who is being held without bail in the Butte County Jail, is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday afternoon.

“I don’t know if I’d say I’m angry, but frustration and unnecessary, yes,” Chico-area rancher John Russell told ABC News of learning the fire was deliberately set.

Russell said the fire burned up to this property line but was stopped by firefighters who cut a fire line around his land with a bulldozer to save his barn and cattle.

“I know I’m being recorded, so I won’t say obviously, I’ll put it tactfully… Our cattle survived. We can go on. We can fix the rest. But truly, the real damage and sadness and anger would come from the people who have lost everything,” Russell said.

There are more than 4,700 personnel, 16 helicopters and 337 fire engines assigned just to the Park Fire, officials said.

“Numerous firefighting air tankers from throughout the state are flying fire suppression missions as conditions allow,” according to CAL FIRE.

A fire burning near the Sequoia National Park, the 2024 SQF Lightning Complex Fire in Tulare and Kern counties in Central California, is the second largest blaze burning in the state, having consumed 82,699 acres since starting on July 13, according to CAL FIRE. The blaze was 33% contained on Monday.

The heavy smoke from fires in Northern California and Oregon is spreading across several states, including Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. By Monday afternoon, some of the heavy smoke is expected to reach as far as the Dakotas and Nebraska.

ABC News’ Mola Lenghi and Jaclyn Lee contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump will sit for a “victim interview” in the investigation into his attempted assassination, the FBI announced on a Monday conference call with reporters.

FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Pittsburgh field office Kevin Rojek did not say when the interview will take place, but said it will be “a standard victim interview we do for any other victim of crime.”

One spectator was killed and two were hurt in the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

Trump suffered a graze wound to his ear.

On Monday’s call, Rojek and other senior FBI officials provided new details about information gleaned from the investigation into what happened at the rally.

Rojek said it appears the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks “made significant efforts to conceal his activities.”

“We believe his actions also show a careful planning ahead of the rally,” Rojek said.

Senior officials from the FBI painted a picture of a shooter who had no friends and his social circle appeared to be limited to his immediate family.

Crooks did a significant amount of preplanning online and didn’t show any outward signs he would be planning a shooting of a former president, officials said.

The FBI determined that, in addition to searching for details on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Crooks also searched for details about other mass casualty events, officials said.

Rojek said his searches were “related to power plants mass shooting events, information on improvised explosive devices and the attempted assassination of the Slovakian prime minister earlier this year.”

Crooks also searched for nationally elected officials, including President Joe Biden and former presidents, officials said.

The gun used in the shooting was purchased by Crooks’ dad in 2013 and legally transferred to Crooks in 2023, according to the FBI.

The FBI also provided an updated new timeline.

Crooks went to the rally site at 11 a.m. on the day of the shooting and spent one hour in the area before traveling home, the FBI said.

At 1:30 p.m., Crooks obtained the rifle from his home and told parents he was going to the shooting range, the FBI said.

Crooks arrived back at the rally site at 3:45 p.m. and started flying a drone about 200 yards from the rally site from 3:50 p.m. to just after 4 p.m., the FBI said. The drone did not contain a memory card, officials said. The FBI said it is working to determine if Crooks was viewing footage and whether that revealed insights into the security posture.

At 4 p.m., Crooks drove throughout the area in the vicinity of the shooting. Shortly after 5 p.m., Crooks was identified as suspicious by a local SWAT officer who took a photo of him, the FBI said.

Just after 5:30 p.m., that same SWAT officer observed Crooks using a rangefinder and reading news on his phone, officials said. At 5:56 p.m., Crooks was seen walking in the vicinity of the AGR building, the FBI said.

Police dash camera video from 6:08 p.m. captured Crooks on the roof, the FBI said.

At 6:11 p.m., a local police officer was boosted up to the roof and encountered Crooks, who pointed a rifle at him, the FBI said. The officer immediately dropped off the roof, the FBI said.

About 25 to 30 seconds later, shots were fired, the FBI said.

Explosives were found in Crooks’ car and home, but the explosives in the car didn’t go off because the receivers found on Crooks were in the off position, the FBI said.

“Explosive experts in the FBI lab assessed the devices from the subject’s vehicle were capable of exploding. However, the magnitude of the damage associated with an explosion is unclear,” Rojek said.

FBI officials declined to answer any questions about the law enforcement posture, security strategy and response, citing multiple ongoing reviews.

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(NEW YORK) — The days of the perfect-looking yard — often lawns that guzzle copious amounts of water to stay green — may soon be gone.

Homeowners are increasingly opting to “re-wilding” their homes, incorporating native plants and decreasing the amount of lawn care to make their properties more sustainable and encourage natural ecosystems to recover, according to Plan It Wild, a New York-based native landscape design company.

About 30% of the water an average American family consumes is used for the outdoors, including activities such as watering lawns and gardens, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the West, where water is absorbed almost immediately by the sun or thirsty vegetation, outdoor water usage can increase to an average of 60% for the average family.

As concerns for the environment — as well as increasing utility bills — grow, so do homeowners’ preferences for how they decorate their yards.

“I don’t want to mow it. I don’t want to water it,” Judy Vigiletti, resident of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, told ABC News. “There’s a lot of lawn, and I need to get rid of it.”

Vigiletti is in the process of removing a large chunk of her lawn — an aesthetic that has taken hold of the modern American neighborhood — and replacing it with native plants.

Embedded in her vision for her new yard are the sights of a natural environment.

“I can just imagine when the wind blows in, the leaves are swaying and the plants are moving,” Vigiletti said. “And that’s what I’m looking for — that kind of harmony.”

Live vegetation native to the region, such as shrubs and trees, provide many benefits once established. They require much less maintenance, including little water beyond normal rainfall, according to the EPA. They also provide collection for stormwater and water quality benefits as well as carbon sequestration.

A method of “tucking in” the plants with a bit of mulch helps them to retain moisture, Dave Baker, co-founder and COO of Plan It Wild, told ABC News.

Vigiletti is among a growing movement of homeowners who are choosing regional vegetation over the traditional lawn, according to Plan It Wild. The landscape design company has seen a surge of people wanting to get rid of their lawns, a trend they have dubbed “rewilding,” Joanna Hall, CEO of Plan it Wild, told ABC News.

When Jane Balter moved into her home in Mount Kisco, New York, it was almost all grass and trees. She began re-wilding the space four years ago, she told ABC News.

One of the biggest challenges she ran into was learning the specifics of her property — some areas were wetter and some drier.

“So that’s sort of a trial and error, and then you learn from what you did and see what’s growing,” Balter said. “And you just plant more of that.”

Now, Balter describes her outdoor space as a “sanctuary.” In a once wildlife-less landscape now lives biodiversity. There are now deer, fox, coyote, birds and insects that venture into her yard, she said.

“It’s the feeling, is just gratitude, really,” she said. “That something that was so lifeless has become so full of life.”

Even early in Vigiletti’s yard transformation, monarch butterflies, have already begun to appear. Populations of the iconic species have been on a steady decline in recent years, according to researchers.

Hall estimates between 40 to 60 million acres of lawn across the country. The lawn is being over-watered and being flooded with pesticides, she said.

“Nothing is wrong with grass,” she said. “It’s that in America, we just have too much.”

This story is part of our Climate Ready series – a collaboration between ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations focused on providing practical solutions to help you and your family adapt to extreme weather events and the current challenges of climate change.

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(NEW YORK) — Something seemed off from the moment Beaver County SWAT sniper Gregory Nicol spotted a man skulking around the outskirts of the site where former President Donald Trump was about to take the stage on July 13.

From his second-floor post inside the AGR complex at the fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, Nicol noticed the young man in a gray T-shirt, lurking.

“He was looking up and down the building … It just seemed out of place,” Nicol, assistant leader of the Beaver County SWAT team, told ABC News in an interview that airs Monday on Good Morning America, “It just didn’t seem right.”

Nicol noticed an unattended bike and backpack. And he saw the man looking up and around, then pulling a rangefinder from his pocket. There was no apparent reason to have a distance-gauging device at a political rally featuring the man who, in a few days, would accept his party’s presidential nomination. The sharpshooter snapped pictures of the suspicious-looking man and the bike, then flagged it to fellow snipers from his team assigned to the event and called it into the command group.

Nicol would be the first officer to issue a warning about 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. Within an hour, Crooks would open fire from the roof of that very building, less than 200 yards from the rally’s stage, wounding Trump on live TV, killing one person in the crowd, and critically injuring two more.

The sniper and his fellow Beaver County SWAT officers were assigned to Trump’s Butler campaign rally, and tasked with supporting the Secret Service and other law enforcement in the mission to keep the event and Secret Service protectee, safe.

They have not spoken publicly until now.

‘Something that we’ll always carry with us’

In their first public comments since the assassination attempt, the Beaver County SWAT team and their supervisors spoke with ABC News Senior Investigative Correspondent Aaron Katersky, marking the first time any of the key law enforcement personnel who were on site July 13 have offered firsthand accounts of what occurred.

The violent episode has already led to the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. And, in the wake of the assassination attempt, a series of law enforcement, internal, and congressional probes have been announced — with communications and coordination a key focus of investigators’ attention.

“This one is something that we’ll always carry with us,” assistant Beaver County SWAT leader Mike Priolo told ABC News.

Long before Crooks would fire his AR-style rifle that Saturday evening, Crooks’ presence wasn’t the only thing that didn’t seem quite right to the local SWAT team.

Team members said that the day of the rally, they had no contact with the agents on Trump’s Secret Service detail.

“We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service members whenever they arrived, and that never happened,” said Jason Woods, team leader for Beaver County’s Emergency Services Unit and SWAT sniper section.

“So I think that was probably a pivotal point, where I started thinking things were wrong because it never happened. We had no communication,” Woods said. “Not until after the shooting.”

By then, he said, “it was too late.”

The Secret Service, whose on-site team was supplemented as usual by local, county and state law-enforcement agencies, was ultimately responsible for security at the event, but none of the concerns apparently reached members of Trump’s detail.

Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi declined to respond directly to the comments Woods and his colleagues made to ABC News. He said the agency “is committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure that never happens again. That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI and other relevant investigations.”

To the men and woman of Beaver County SWAT, what happened is clear: There was a lack of planning and communication that caused a catastrophic failure in the protection of Donald Trump. They said they saw the problem coming, and they tried to alert the people in charge and sound the alarm.

With the presidential campaign in full gear and Trump now saying he wants to return for another rally outside Pittsburgh, it is critical to know what went wrong at the last one — so it doesn’t happen again.

“I have to imagine that they’re going to make some very serious adjustments — namely, probably, hold it inside where you have a lot more control over who’s coming in,” said Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible, who oversees the county SWAT unit. “If we’re asked for assistance, we will provide it.”

‘An away game’

By mid-morning on July 13, the Beaver County team of snipers and spotters was in position — hours before Trump was set to take the stage that evening at the sprawling grounds that’s studded by a complex of warehouses.

Once they were positioned at the security perimeter — outside the metal detectors — Woods said he immediately wondered whether they had been put in the most effective spot.

“I think the better location would have been inside looking out, and that’s actually where the Secret Service snipers end up getting placed,” Woods said. “For us to effectively do our job, I don’t know if that was the best location.”

But it was “an away game,” Woods said, meaning his team was not in charge. So they deferred to the Secret Service agents whose job it was to determine the security plan and keep Trump safe.

“I knew the Secret Service knew where we were supposed to be, and that’s where we were placed,” Woods said.

“Our instructions, marching orders were given to us from Butler County EMS unit, their command. With, historically speaking, approval from the Secret Service,” Priolo said.

This was not the team’s first time participating in a Secret Service operation.

“We as a team would assume that that would be a robust type thing, that they would have constant communication. And it very well might have been — we’re just not aware of it,” said Beaver County Chief Detective Patrick Young, the commander of emergency services.

The event’s atmosphere, Young said, also meant a dynamic environment: Officers had to rapidly gauge whether rallygoers’ bulging back pockets held merely bottled water or booze — commonplace at a festive gathering under the blazing summer sun of Western Pennsylvania — or was a sign of something more sinister.

“Our first indication that there was going to be something different about this was the lack of patrol that we’d seen in the area,” Priolo said of the plans.

The effect of that, he said, was that the SWAT officers would have to personally handle any urgent patrol-level incident that should arise.

“The best analogy I’ve heard is — we’re a scalpel, when you’re asking us to be used as a hammer,” Priolo said. “That’s kind of what we figured out throughout the day.”

‘They must have found this guy’

When Nicol observed Crooks’ suspicious presence and called it in to local command via radio, he said he expected action to be taken — like a uniformed officer would “check it out,” according to text messages between snipers on the ground, which were obtained by ABC News.

“The first thing I did, I sent those pictures out, we had a text group between the local snipers that were on the scene. I sent those pictures out to that group and advised them of what I noticed and what I’d seen,” Nicol said. ‘There was a text back that said, ‘Call it into command.’ I then called into our to the command via radio. And they acknowledged.”

“I assumed that there would be somebody coming out to — you know, to speak with this individual or, you know, find out what’s going on,” he added.

Nicol moved through the building trying to shadow Crooks, who was outside, and keep eyes on him. But Nicole lost sight of Crooks as Nicol made his way down to the building’s first level.

By that time, Trump had taken the stage, Nicol said.

Then, as the former president began speaking, Nicole noticed rallygoers looking away from the podium, up toward the roof of the AGR building. Some were shouting that there was someone up there.

Nicol said he was almost relieved, thinking to himself, “Oh, they must have found this guy we were looking for out there, and everybody’s watching the police deal with him.”

He would soon discover that wasn’t the case.

“That’s when I heard the gunshots,” Nicol said. Crooks had opened fire on the campaign rally.

SWAT medic Michel Vasiladiotis-Nicol responded with Beaver County SWAT Det. Rich Gianvito, along with other local personnel from Butler County and the surrounding areas.

They squeezed through the fence perimeter and headed toward the building where the shots had come from.

“We then ascended that ladder to then meet up with — what — we weren’t sure again if it was a mass casualty or what we were walking into,” said Vasiladiotis-Nicol, who is sniper Gregory Nicol’s wife.

“We’re prepared for anything at that point,” Gianvito said, including a possible firefight because the team had no idea if the rooftop shooter was dead or alive, or if there could be an accomplice still unaccounted for.

On the roof, they found Crooks motionless and face down — images captured on Gianvito’s helmet camera. Crooks’ wrists had been quickly bound with white plastic ties, in case he was still alive. A long trail of blood flowed down the sloped roof.

Vasiladiotis-Nicol put her gloved fingers to the shooter’s neck. “He had absolutely no pulse,” she recalled.

In the seconds after the shooting, Trump was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors treated a wound to his ear. Later that night he flew back to his golf club in New Jersey. The first photos of him after the shooting — blood down his face, fist raised over the heads of the Secret Service agents rushing him away — have already become iconic images.

What remains are looming questions and an impatient Congress. How could this happen? Could the shooting have been prevented? Was it a failure of planning, coordination, communications — or all of the above?

“I think with some better planning perhaps, it could have been stopped,” said Bible, the Beaver County DA. “You’re protecting one of probably the more high-profile political candidates in history. So, how was a 20-year-old able to fire off several shots at him?”

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(BUTLER, Pa.) — A local SWAT sniper noticed the suspected gunman at former President Donald Trump’s deadly campaign rally earlier than previously known, according to text messages obtained by ABC News.

On July 13, in what authorities have said was an assassination attempt, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one spectator, critically injuring two others and leaving Trump bleeding from his right ear.

At 4:26 p.m. — nearly two hours before the shooting began — a sniper leaving the area where local SWAT members assembled saw Crooks “sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit,” the text message said.

The obtained text messages were shared among snipers in the American Glass Research (AGR) building area, which was being used as a staging area for local police, who were inside the structure.

The sniper who alerted others that Crooks was lurking in the area noted Crooks was likely aware of the snipers’ position, writing, “because you see me go out with my rifle and put it in my car, so he knows you guys are up there.”

Less than an hour later, as ABC News previously reported, a member of that same sniper team identified Crooks as suspicious — and shortly after that, called it into local command, warning of the suspicious presence.

In their first public comments since the assassination attempt, the Beaver County SWAT team on the ground that day and their supervisors spoke exclusively with ABC News Senior Investigative Correspondent Aaron Katersky.

It is the first time any key law enforcement personnel on-site on July 13 have offered first-hand accounts of what occurred.

“We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service members whenever they arrived, and that never happened,” said Jason Woods, lead sharpshooter on the SWAT team in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

“So I think that was probably a pivotal point, where I started thinking things were wrong because it never happened,” Woods said. “We had no communication.”

The Secret Service, whose on-site team was supplemented as usual by local, county and state law-enforcement agencies, was ultimately responsible for security at the event. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Secret Service agents have complained they were not made aware of the warnings.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to respond directly to the comments from Woods and his colleagues. He said the agency “is committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure that never happens again. That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI and other relevant investigations.”

Beaver County Chief Detective Patrick Young, who runs the Emergency Services Unit and SWAT team, said collaboration is key when lives are on the line.

“I believe our team did everything humanly possible that day,” Young said. “We talk a lot on SWAT that we as individuals mean nothing until we come together as a team.”

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(AUSTIN, Texas.) — A Texas woman who self-managed her abortion is suing prosecutors and a local sheriff after she was held in jail for two nights on a murder charge that was ultimately dismissed.

Lizelle Gonzalez, a Star County, Texas, resident, filed a civil rights complaint alleging that hospital staff provided her private information to prosecutors and the county sheriff who later charged her with murder, according to court documents.

Under Texas’ multiple abortion bans, it is not a crime for a woman to obtain or seek abortion care for herself; the abortion bans target physicians and anyone who aids a woman in obtaining or seeking an abortion.

Gonzalez is alleging the prosecutors and the sheriff violated her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights and is seeking over $1 million in damages. Two prosecutors — District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez and District Attorney Alexandria Lynn Barrera — as well as Starr County Sheriff Rene Fuentes and Starr County are all named in the lawsuit.

State law prohibits physicians from providing abortion care and places civil and criminal penalties on anyone who aids a woman in obtaining abortion care unless the mother’s life is at risk.

Complaint alleges privacy law violations
Gonzalez says she went to an emergency room in January 2022 after having taken “Cytotec Icetrogen 400 mcg” — otherwise known as misoprotol, one of the two medications used in the abortion pill regimen — to cause an abortion when she was 19 weeks pregnant, according to her complaint.

An exam found no contractions and found a fetal heart rate so she was discharged from the hospital and told to follow up days later, according to her lawsuit.

Less than an hour after she was discharged, she was taken back to the hospital with complaints of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. No fetal cardiac activity was detected upon examination and a cesarean section was performed. She delivered a stillborn child, according to court documents.

Gonzalez alleged her private medical information was then given to state prosecutors and the sheriff, ultimately leading to her arrest which she says violated federal privacy laws.

Gonzalez alleged in court documents that the district attorney’s office and the Starr County Sheriff’s Office had agreements with a local hospital to report these types of cases. Gonzalez also alleged there are other women who’s health information was also shared for the purpose of investigations and potential indictments.

She alleged that two district attorneys and the Starr County’s sheriff presented false and misleading information to a grand jury to secure an indictment against her, according to court documents.

Gonzalez was arrested in April 2022 and held in jail for two nights before a $500,000 bond was posted and she was released. The charges against her were dismissed two days after she was released.

Due to her indictment and arrest, Gonzalez suffered “humiliation” which has “permanently affected her standing in the community,” she alleged in court documents.

Earlier this year, Ramirez agreed to pay a $1,250 fine under a settlement reached with the State Bar of Texas and to have his license held in a probated suspension for 12 months for his prosecution of acts clearly not criminal under state law. He remains the Starr County district attorney.

Ramirez and Barrera have sought to have the suit dismissed and have argued in court documents that they have “absolute immunity for the individual claims against them because the pleaded facts show nothing other than actions taken as part of the judicial phase of criminal proceedings,” according to court documents.

Fuentes also sought to get the case thrown out and argued that he has “qualified immunity” and argued that she did not specify claims against him specifically, but rather against his office.

An attorney representing Ramirez, Barrera, Fuentes and Starr County declined to comment on the lawsuit and told ABC News all responses will be through court filings.

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(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — Sonya Massey, the Illinois woman fatally shot by a deputy while responding to her 911 call, died by homicide due to a gunshot wound to her head, according to an autopsy report released Friday by the Sangamon County coroner.

Though the autopsy report did not state the manner of death, Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon confirmed it was homicide.

“The cause of death; gunshot wound of the head. The manner of death; Homicide,” Allmon told ABC News in a statement.

The bullet that killed Massey, 36, entered at the lower eyelid of her left eye and exited through the posterior left surface of her upper neck, according to the autopsy report.

Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who shot Massey, was fired and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in Massey’s death. He pleaded not guilty.

Massey and a second, unnamed deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call reporting a possible intruder at her Springfield home on July 6.

Body camera footage released Monday shows Grayson, 30, yelling at Massey to put down a pot of boiling water.

The footage, reviewed by ABC News, shows Massey telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me,” once she answered their knocks on her door.

Grayson responded, “I don’t want to hurt you, you called us.”

Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points out a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”

Massey then pours the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Grayson threatens to shoot her, according to the video, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, and Grayson shoots her three times in the face, the footage shows.

The footage is from the point of view of Grayson’s partner, because Grayson did not turn on his own body camera until after the shooting, according to court documents.

A review by Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force.

Grayson was discharged from the U.S. Army for “misconduct (serious offense),” according to documents obtained by ABC News.

ABC News has also learned that Grayson was charged with two DUI offenses in Macoupin County, Illinois, in August 2015 and July 2016, according to court documents.

Grayson’s attorney, Dan Fultz, declined to comment.

The news of his discharge and DUI offenses come days after it was revealed through Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board records obtained by ABC News that Grayson worked for six law enforcement agencies over the last four years.

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